PATIENTS are receiving a second-class response from the ambulance service because of the drive to meet Government targets, a former paramedic has warned.

The comments followed the revelation that one in three 999 calls was attended by ambulance technicians and not paramedics in Surrey last year.

Retired paramedic, Ken Callanan, is the man behind the petition to save all Surrey’s hospitals, which attracted 112,754 signatures from across the county. He criticised South East Coast Ambulance Service (SECAmb) for sending employees to life-threatening emergencies alone.

Single responders are paramedics or technicians attending 999 calls on a bike or car.

Mr Callanan said they have to wait for back-up before carrying out some treatments.

“It’s putting so much pressure on paramedics,” he said. “We are offering some category A patients a second-class response. They have been taking paramedics off front line vehicles and using them in motorbikes and cars.

“It puts a huge responsibility on the paramedic to go to a category A where there will be cases where he cannot use some skills because he needs someone else with him.”

Three-quarters of red, or category A calls, must be responded to within eight minutes, and 95% of category B and C calls within 19 minutes.

“The promise was that we would have paramedics on frontline vehicles and they are not meeting that,” Mr Callanan said. “These cars and bikes are being sent to category A patients to stop the clock. Every frontline ambulance dealing with category A patients ought to have technicians and paramedics working as a team.”

Figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act revealed that paramedics attended 66.46% of emergencies between March 31, 2006, and 2007. Technicians attended the remaining third.

Technicians have wide-ranging basic life-saving skills including resuscitating heart attack patients and are equipped to deal with a number of medical emergencies.

They receive eight weeks training and one year on the road before fully qualifying.

Paramedics previously took a 10-week residential course and now take a part-time three-year degree course to qualify. They can administer the clot-busting procedure, thrombolysis. Mr Callanan acknowledged not all category A calls would be life-threatening. “They are cutting corners,” he said and added it would be dangerous to close A&E.

“They are depending on these crews to treat them on the road rather than in A&E.”

Sue Harris, SECAmb director of operations, said 10% of 999 calls are life-threatening, but 30% are described as category A. “Ideally we aim to put out paramedics and technicians crews, but on occasions we will put out double technicians crews to emergencies and will be backed up immediately,” she said. “Sending a double technician team for a cardiac arrest is just as good as sending a community responder if they are able to start CPR and use a defibrillator. This is not about stopping the clock,” she said. “It’s about providing the best care for patients.”

More single responder vehicles, she said, will be used in future. “The bulk of patients don’t need to be conveyed to hospital,” she added.

Paramedic practitioners are being trained to help patients in the community. She said clinical evidence shows patients are better off travelling further than being transferred from one hospital to another. Kevin Hedges, chair of Surrey’s Unison branch, said he would be happy to receive treatment from two paramedics.